Previous Story
CHC Lab remains compliant with CMS
More than three years after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) lifted its suspension on the CHC’s laboratory unit, Dr. Philip Dauterman, Lab Director, was pleased to receive word that the unit’s certification has been renewed for another two years. The new Certificate of Compliance doesn’t expire until April 2019.
“After years of hard work to get the lab back into good shape from where we were in 2012, I’m very proud of our unit for continuing to hold good standing with CMS,” added Dauterman.
CMS regulates laboratories through what’s known as CLIA, which stands for Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. CLIA was passed by Congress in 1988 to establish standards for all non-research laboratory resting.
As a “non-CLIA waived” medical laboratory, the CHC Laboratory performs tests of greater complexity than the simple “waived” tests, and therefore must meet higher and stricter standards for compliance.
Waived tests such as pregnancy test, some urine tests, and fecal occult blood tests are those tests that are so simple and accurate, that they carry little risk of error when performed correctly. As the only full-service CMS certified non-CLIA waived medical laboratory in the CNMI, the CHC lab performed 1,987,868 tests in the last year. (CHC)
